FrogReaver
As long as i get to be the frog
Sorry...I meant to put an example in my initial post.
At first level, your Warlock would get 12 Base HP (his CON score). Then he’d also get 9 based on his d8 hit die (maxed for 1st level) and 1 bonus HP from his CON. So he’d have 21 HP. Anytime he dropped to 12 or less, he’d have to choose to go unconscious or keep going.
Yes, low level characters would be at risk of instant death due to a crit, that’s true. I’m not exactly happy about that, but I’m also not totally against it. I’m not sure if there’s a way to prevent it in this method. Any ideas?
Thanks. I play in a death at 0 game with increased level 1 hp. It's very fun. Honestly, it's the most fun 5e campaign I've played in. I wouldn't worry about crits causing death at 0. I think it's came up once in my game and it wasn't even at level 1 when it happened. Basically, being able to die haphazardly to things such as crits or a couple of unlucky attacks from an enemy or whatever really adds to the tone of the game, in a good way IMO. All battles, no matter how easy they seem now have a risk. Players will be less apt to murder hobo. They will take other options around combat when presented with them. Encounters don't have to be as hard as even with the easier ones there is always a chance for a character death. TPK's then become less likely, etc. Personally I think taking away the chance for critical hit deaths detracts from this amazing mood and experience that death at 0 helps create.
However, if you are really worried, don't try to fix the hp more. Instead change how crits work. Maybe crits don't do extra damage, maybe they cause a status effect. Maybe taking a crit while at max hp can at most only drop a player unconscious as opposed to killing them.
I'm not sold on the idea of giving a player the option to keep fighting or to drop unconscious but I'm not totally against the idea. I'd be curious to see how it plays out. My initial impression is that player decisions that are not in character should be kept at a minimum and that trying to manage the risk associated with PC death solely from a player perspective puts me as a player in an awkward position. There's no glory in continuing to fight. There's no cowardice in falling unconscious. If the goal is to take PC death off the DM's hands I guess this rule does that by instead putting it on the players hands in the form of an arbitrary out of character decision. Personally, I think in-character decisions and dice should be the biggest deciders of a characters ultimate fate in combat. Maybe it will have a different feel in actual play though. Only testing it out can tell I suppose.
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